SL receiving enough jabs to meet targets, says Gen. Silva

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Sri Lanka would receive 1.48 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on 22 July and another eight million doses of several vaccines, including 6.5 million doses of Sinopharm would arrive in August, Head of the National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO) General Shavendra Silva said yesterday.

Gen. Silva said that with those consignments, Sri Lanka would have received over 17 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of August.

“Sri Lanka has 11.5 million people over 30, which is the target group for vaccination. We have already vaccinated 5.7 million people in this category. So, by the end of August, we will have more than enough vaccine doses to give at least one jab to everyone over 30. Once those of these categories have been vaccinated, we can think about vaccinating those over 18,” General Silva said.

There were 1.4 million people over 30 in the Colombo District, 1.3 million in the Gampaha District and close to 700,000 in the Kalutara District. Out of those; 71% in Colombo, 58% in Gampaha and 54.7% in Kalutara had got at least the first jab, Gen. Silva said.

“Overall, around 35% of those over 30 countrywide have received at least one jab. I think we are in a really good place, regionally,” h said.